Digital Transformation to Enhance the Performance of Local Governments
A Bibliometric Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23882/emss26370Keywords:
Digital transformation, Local governments, Public performance, Bibliometric analysis, Digital governance, E-governmentAbstract
This article presents a bibliometric review of the scientific literature on digital transformation as a driver of local government performance. The analysis is based on a corpus of 105 English-language publications indexed in the Scopus database over the 2005-2025 period. Documents were selected in accordance with the PRISMA protocol, while the bibliometric analyses were conducted using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. The aim is to map the evolution of this research field, identify the main influential authors, institutions, countries, and journals, and highlight collaboration networks, intellectual foundations, and thematic trends in the literature. The results reveal sustained growth in scientific output, particularly since 2022, reflecting researchers’ increasing interest in the challenges of digital transformation in local governments. Spain and Indonesia are among the most productive countries, while the ACM International Conference Proceeding Series and Public Administration are among the most influential sources. Scientific mapping analyses show that the literature is structured around several complementary themes, including digital administration, e-government, public governance, public data management, and organizational performance. Co-citation and bibliographic coupling analyses confirm that the most recent research is increasingly focused on digital governance, data management, organizational innovation, and improving the quality of public services. This study contributes to a better understanding of the field’s intellectual structure and highlights several research perspectives, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence, data governance, smart cities, and the performance assessment of local governments.
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